Hurricane Hermine roared ashore at Florida's Big Bend at 1:30 a.m. today, packing 80-mile-an-hour winds and heading directly for South Georgia.
The National Hurricane Center said Hermine, which achieved hurricane force Thursday, made landfall at St. Marks, due south of Tallahassee at the "bend" where Florida's Panhandle meets its Peninsula.
“This is a life-threatening situation,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Thursday, urging Gulf Coast residents to move inland if necessary to seek shelter. “It’s going to be a lot of risk. Right now, I want everybody to be safe.”
Gov. Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency in 56 counties in south, central and southeastern Georgia. Emergency management officials warned of potential flooding, power failures and tornadoes spinning off the storm.
Valdosta, which lay almost dead center in the storm track, was prepared for gale-force winds and up to 10 inches of rain today as Hermine (say it: hurr-MEAN) cast its eye over the Georgia border. Farther east, on the Georgia coast, Savannah battened down and people on Tybee and St. Simons Islands began filling up sandbags; the most powerful part of the storm is expected to reach the Georgia coast at high tide this morning.
After rains every day this week, Valdosta residents were concerned that the saturated ground would not soak up another half-foot or more of water and that falling trees would take out power lines.
Valdosta State University announced Thursday it was canceling classes through 5 p.m. today. Georgia Southern in Statesboro said it was closing, as did Albany State University and Darton State College.
And with the Georgia coast also in Hermine’s crosshairs, the Ports of Savannah and Brunswick planned to shut down today as well.
The National Hurricane Center’s “cone” for Hermine, or the projected storm track, showed it landing in Florida, sweeping across South Georgia and then heading up the Atlantic coast before veering back out to sea. But wide areas on either side of the cone were warned to expect heavy rain and high winds. The forecast for Macon today, for example, said the chance of rain is 100 percent.
Projected rainfall ranged up to 10 inches in parts of northern Florida and southern Georgia, with 4 to 10 inches possible along the coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas by Sunday. Lesser amounts were forecast farther up the Atlantic Coast, because the storm was expected to veer out to sea.
Residents on some islands and other low-lying, flood-prone areas in Florida were urged to clear out. Flooding was expected across a wide swath of the Big Bend, which has a marshy coastline and is made up of mostly rural communities and small towns, where fishing, hunting and camping are mainstays of life.
Spyridon Aibejeris, 36, crouched in the mud, the seashore just a few feet away, helping some campers change flat tires on a trailer so it could be evacuated from the Keaton Beach campground that he and his family manage.
“We already moved about 40 of them as fast as we could,” he said. He sent his wife and daughter into the nearby town of Perry. “I’ve heard 80 mph winds are coming. It could rip siding off my house.”
Florida’s governor ordered many state government offices to close at noon, including those in the state capital of Tallahassee, home to tens of thousands of state employees. The city, roughly 35 miles from the coast, has not had a direct hit from a hurricane in 30 years.
The last hurricane to strike Florida was Wilma, a powerful Category 3 storm that arrived on Oct. 24, 2005. It swept across the Everglades and struck heavily populated south Florida, causing five deaths in the state and an estimated $23 billion in damage.
On Thursday, residents were out in force preparing for the storm, and stores began running low on bottled water and flashlights. City crews struggled to keep up with demand for sand for filling sandbags.
On Cedar Key, a small island along the Big Bend, about a dozen people went from storefront to storefront, putting up shutters and nailing pieces of plywood to protect businesses from the wind.
One of them, Joe Allen, spray-painted on plywood in large black letters: “Bring it on, Hermine.” Despite the bravado, he said, “I’m worried. You can never fully protect yourself from nature.”
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